She held me out a box, mechanically,
as it seemed, and, when I had taken it of her, she held out her hand
just as though she had been a real earthly beggar-girl; but that was
part of the beneficent illusion of Heaven.'
'That was for the price, don't you know?' said Sleaford. 'What did
you give her?'
'I gave her a shilling, my lord, which she looked at for some time in
a state of bewilderment. She then began to feel about her as if for
something.'
'She was feelin' for the change, don't you know?' said Sleaford, not
in the least degree perceiving how these interruptions of a prosaic
mind were maddening me.
'I told her that I wanted to speak to her,' continued Wilderspin,
'and asked her where she lived. She gave me the same bewildered,
other-world look with which she had regarded the shilling, a look
which seemed to say, "Go away now: leave me alone!" As I did not go,
she began to appear afraid of me, and moved away towards Temple Bar,
and then crossed the street. I followed, as far behind as I could
without running the danger of losing sight of her, to a wretched
place running out of Great Queen Street.
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